Will you be heading back to work after baby is born, and expressing milk while at work? Here is a little checklist of the items that you’ll need to consider
- Breast Pump If you will be exclusively pumping we recommend theMedela Freestyle which is rated to handle high use, and its very quiet, and small. It is also handy if you have some hand sanitiser and wipes along with your breast pump.
- Photo – it sounds corny, but having a photo of your baby to look at while you are expressing can help with the milk flow.
- Bottles. You can pump directly into the bottles, or you can pump intoBreast Milk Storage Bags (these take less room in the fridge). You’ll need a duplicated number of bottles for each feed that you are expressing. (eg, your baby may take 3 bottles of expressed milk to childcare, and you’ll need to take 3 empty bottles to work so that you can express for the following days feeds). So calculate how many feeds your baby will be having while you are gone, and plan for the number of bottles.
- Cool Storage: you’ll need a chilly bag to store your expressed milk. Perhaps get a camping/picnic insulated bag. We also recommend that you keep this located in the fridge at your work place. Keeping it in the chilly bag will make it less obvious to your colleagues. Buy 2-3 ice packs, so that you can use one and have the others waiting in the freezer and swap them over each day.
- Bag – there’s a lot of things that you’ll need to be taking to work with you, so you might want to consider putting them in a separate bag. Don’t forget to drink lots of water too.
- Nursing Cover – these are very handy if you will be expressing in a public workspace
- Teats – don’t forget teats so that baby can drink your precious milk!
- Bottle Cleaning Brush – we recommend that you rinse out the bottle after every feed so that the milk doesn’t dry. At the end of the day, wash all bottles, teats, breast pump parts with hot soapy water and rinse.
- Steriliser. Everything that comes into contact with milk will need to be sterilised.
We recommend that you use your Breast Pump for a month or so, before you return to work. This will help to increase your supply so that you can build up a stash in the freezer, and will also help your body to get used to pumping. The Breast Milk Storage Bags are really handy for this, as they can stack up flat in the freezer and are quick to defrost and warm under the tap before a feed.
